System, method and robot terminal apparatus for providing robot interaction service using location information of mobile communication terminal

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure relates to a system and method for providing a robot interaction service utilizing a location-based service of a mobile communication terminal. 
     The present disclosure describes a system for providing a robot interaction service utilizing location information of a mobile communication terminal, comprising: a mobile communication terminal for performing a mobile communication service through a wireless communication network, measuring a current location thereof and transmitting the measured location information to a predetermined robot terminal through a communication network; and a robot terminal for receiving the location information from the mobile communication terminal, determining a robot behavior based on the received location information, and controlling the operation thereof according to the determination result.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application is a national phase entry under 35 U.S.C. §371of International Application No. PCT/KR2011/003707 filed May 19, 2011,which claims priority to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2010-0105118filed in the Republic of Korea on Oct. 27, 2010, the disclosures ofwhich are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND

1. Field

Exemplary embodiments broadly relate to providing an interaction serviceutilizing a robot, and more particularly, to a system, an apparatus, anda method for providing a robot interaction service utilizing alocation-based service of a mobile communication terminal.

2.Description of the Related Art

Recently, with the rapid development in the computer, electronics andcommunication technology, various wireless communication services areprovided based on a wireless communication network. The most basicwireless communication service is to provide a wireless voicecommunication service between users of mobile communication terminals,which is free from time and location, and also supplemented by a textmessaging service.

In addition, as internet based on transmission control protocol/internetprotocol (TCP/IP) is becoming more established, systems capable ofsearching various kinds of information via the internet or transmittingvarious kinds of data, such as texts, voices, images, movies, or thelike, in real time are rapidly developing, and in order to use variousinternet-based communication services in a better environment, the useof a high-speed communication network is dramatically increasing.

Moreover, in order to provide a space-transcended communication service,a wireless internet service, which provides internet communicationservices to the subscribers of a mobile communication service based on awireless communication network have been introduced. Accordingly, manycompanies are putting their efforts toward the development of wirelessinternet techniques. The wireless internet service is a great stepforward to individual services provided with the use of personalterminals. One of the characteristics of the wireless internet serviceis that it can provide inherent information based on the user'smobility.

To keep up with these trends, smart phones, which are open type cellularphones, such as an iphone, an android phone, or the like, have spreadrapidly. Most of these smart phones have a global positioning system(GPS), a mobile communication network, a wireless local area network(LAN), or the like, which can track location of the device as needede.g., continuously, periodically, or on request. Recently, various smartphone applications using these location based services have gainedpopularity and are attracting much attention from the smart phone users.

Meanwhile, in a related art robot system, a robot is disconnected from anetwork, and even if a robot is connected to a network, the robot simplydisplays information of a server or sends and receives a simple messagein the network. Although some of therelated art robots may send orreceive movies with a remote-control function by linking with cellularphones, various services capable of interacting with an individual userby linking a privately-owned cellular phone with a robot in a networkare still needed.

That is, services using a related art robot have problems in that a usercannot share his/her emotions nor interact with the robot. Therefore,research and development into improving these drawbacks are needed.

SUMMARY

Exemplary embodiments are designed to solve the problems describedabove, and therefore it is an aspect of exemplary embodiments to providea robot system which may interact with a user based on locationinformation of a mobile communication terminal capable of measuring alocation, by linking a personal mobile communication terminal with arobot.

Another aspect of exemplary embodiments is to provide a robotinteraction service which may provide various services to betterconvenience a user in real life, by figuring out the user's locationinformation together with the surrounding condition information of arobot.

Illustrative, non-limiting embodiments may overcome the abovedisadvantages and other disadvantages not described above. The presentinvention is not necessarily required to overcome any of thedisadvantages described above, and the illustrative, non-limitingembodiments may not overcome any of the problems described above. Theappended claims should be consulted to ascertain the true scope of theinvention

According to an aspect of an exemplary embodiment, a system forproviding a robot interaction service utilizing location information ofa mobile communication terminal is provided. The system includes: amobile communication terminal which performs a mobile communicationservice using a wireless communication network, which determines acurrent location thereof and transmits the determined locationinformation to a robot terminal using the communication network; and therobot terminal which receives the location information from the mobilecommunication terminal, which determines a robot behavior based on thereceived location information, and which controls the operation thereofaccording to the determined robot behavior.

According to another aspect of an exemplary embodiment, a method forproviding a robot interaction service utilizing location information ofa mobile communication terminal is provided. The method includes by amobile communication terminal measuring the current location andtransmitting the location information to a robot terminal in a houseusing a communication network; by the robot terminal, receiving thelocation information of the mobile communication terminal through thecommunication network, and obtaining surrounding condition informationby detecting a surrounding condition with a sensor; determining by therobot terminal, a robot behavior based on the combined information ofthe received location information and the obtained surrounding conditioninformation; and by the robot terminal, controlling the operationthereof according to the result of the robot behavior determination.

According to still another aspect, a robot terminal apparatus forproviding a robot interaction service utilizing location information ofa mobile communication terminal. The robot terminal includes: acommunication interface configured to communicate with a mobilecommunication terminal using a communication network, configured torequest location information of the mobile communication terminal fromthe mobile communication terminal and configured to receive the locationinformation measured by the mobile communication terminal; a sensorconfigured to detect a surrounding condition and configured to obtainsurrounding condition information; a behavior determinator configured todetermine a robot behavior by combining the location informationreceived from the communication interface and the surrounding conditioninformation obtained from the sensor; and an operation controllerconfigured to control the operation of a robot terminal according to thedetermination result of the behavior determinator.

According to exemplary embodiments, since current location information,figured out by a user's mobile communication terminal, is used todetermine interaction behaviors of a robot, a robot provides variousinteraction behaviors to a user based on the user's movement andlocation. Therefore, emotional interaction may be achieved between auser and a robot, and the user's interest may increase.

In addition, since a robot determines its behavior in consideration of auser's location together with a surrounding condition of a robot, therobot may express various emotional behaviors, and improve convenienceto a user in real life.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Non-limiting and non-exhaustive exemplary embodiments will be describedin conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Understanding that thesedrawings depict only exemplary embodiments and are, therefore, not to beintended to limit its scope, the exemplary embodiments will be describedwith specificity and detail taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a view showing a system for providing a robot interactionservice utilizing location information of a mobile communicationterminal according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a view showing a robot terminal apparatus for providing arobot interaction service utilizing location information of a mobilecommunication terminal according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for providing a robotinteraction service utilizing location information of a mobilecommunication terminal according to an exemplary embodiment; and

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating a method for providing a robotinteraction service utilizing location information of a mobilecommunication terminal according to an exemplary embodiment, based oneach node.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

Further purpose and advantages of the present disclosure will becomemore apparent from the following description and the accompanyingexemplary embodiments. Also, the purpose and advantages of the presentdisclosure may be achieved in accordance with particular meansillustrated in the scope of the present disclosure and the combinationthereof.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments will be described in detail withreference to the accompanying drawings. Prior to the description, itshould be understood that the terms used in the specification and theappended claims should not be construed as limited to general anddictionary meanings, but interpreted based on the meanings and conceptscorresponding to technical aspects of the present disclosure on thebasis of the principle that the inventor is allowed to define termsappropriately for the best explanation. Therefore, the descriptionproposed herein is just examples for the purpose of illustrations only,not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure, so it should beunderstood that other equivalents and modifications could be madethereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure.

FIG. 1 is a view showing a system for providing a robot interactionservice utilizing location information of a mobile communicationterminal according to an exemplary embodiment.

By linking a user's mobile communication terminal with a robot terminalunder a wire and wireless network communication environment, a systemfor providing a robot interaction service according to exemplaryembodiments provides a service which may perform various interactionbehaviors of a robot terminal according to user's location information.

Referring to FIG. 1, the system for providing a robot interactionservice according to an exemplary embodiment includes a robot terminal100 (i.e., a robot) placed in a user's house or a specific place andconnected to a network 400 to interact with a user, a mobilecommunication terminal 200 carried by a user and performing acommunication service, a robot server 300 for relaying information ofthe robot terminal 100 and the mobile communication terminal 200, a wireand wireless communication network 400 accessed by the terminals and theserver, respectively connected to each other, and location measuringdevices 501, 502 for measuring location information at the mobilecommunication terminal 200.

The robot terminal 100 is a personal robot device terminal which isconnected to the mobile communication terminal 200 via the communicationnetwork 400 to communicate location information and data thereto andwhich determines a robot behavior according to location information ofthe mobile communication terminal 200 to execute various functions of arobot and perform various robot behaviors. The robot terminal 100 islocated in a user's house or a user's preferred place and is connectedto the communication network 400. In general, the robot terminal 100wirelessly accesses the communication network 400 through an in-housewireless access point 101 or an in-house router which is connected tothe communication network 400 as shown in FIG. 1.

In addition, the robot terminal 100 may determine a robot behavior notonly based on user's location information obtained from the mobilecommunication terminal 200, but also by combining the user's locationinformation with surrounding condition information after detecting thesurrounding condition information with a sensor, or the like. Therefore,subtle interaction behaviors may be performed, and home network devicesmay be controlled according to surrounding conditions (e.g. turning on alight in a room, turning on a TV, etc.) in linkage with an in-house homenetwork. The robot terminal 100 will be described in further detaillater with reference to the accompanying drawings. In an exemplaryembodiment, the robot terminal includes at least a memory, a processor,and a display. In yet another exemplary embodiment, the robot terminal100 may be a tangible robot having at least one of a head with a displayand hands.

The mobile communication terminal 200 is a wireless communicationterminal device having a communication function to allow a voicecommunication service or a short message service to be available betweenusers who are using different mobile communication terminals in thecommunication network 400. Besides the performance of a wirelesscommunication service, the mobile communication terminal 200 measuresthe current location of the mobile communication terminal and transmitsthe measured location information to another terminal or node. For this,the mobile communication terminal 200 is provided with a GPS receiver ora cell/station/wireless LAN-based location measuring module formeasuring location information. The mobile communication terminal 200may include a cellular phone, a PCS phone, a CDMA phone, a WCDMA phone,a GSM phone, a PDA phone, a smart phone, or the like, and a smart phonein which applications are installed to perform various services, ispreferred.

The mobile communication terminal 200 may communicate with the robotterminal 100 to transmit the measured location information and mayinclude a robot interaction application for displaying information datareceived from the robot terminal 100. Since the robot interactionapplication is executed at the mobile communication terminal 200 (or isautomatically executed when the mobile communication terminal accessesthe internet), the mobile communication terminal 200 transmits thecurrent IP address to the robot server 300, and the server may relaydata to the robot terminal 100. Moreover, after a communication is madebetween the mobile communication terminal 200 and the robot terminal100, when the robot terminal 100 requests location information, themobile communication terminal 200 measures and provides the locationinformation to the robot terminal 100. Also, when information data aretransmitted from the robot terminal 100, the mobile communicationterminal 200 outputs the transmitted information data on a display ofthe mobile communication terminal, for example. The information data mayinclude data, data such as emotional message data transmitted from therobot terminal 100 as being an interaction behavior according to auser's location.

The robot server 300 is provided at a predetermined node of thecommunication network 400 and relays information between the mobilecommunication terminal 200 and the robot terminal 100. The robot server300 stores identifiers and IP addresses of a plurality of the mobilecommunication terminals, and stores and manages identifiers and IPaddresses of robot terminals corresponding to those of the mobilecommunication terminals. Thus, when the mobile communication terminal orthe robot terminal requests an IP address of the corresponding terminal,the robot server 300 extracts and provides the IP address registered andstored in the corresponding terminal.

In an exemplary embodiment, the robot server 300 receives an IP addressfrom the mobile communication terminal and stores the IP addresstogether with an identifier of the mobile communication terminal. Then,when the robot terminal requests IP address information of the mobilecommunication terminal, the robot server extracts the stored IP addressbased on the identifier of the mobile communication terminal andtransmits the extracted IP address to the robot terminal. As a result ofthe exemplary procedures described above, although an IP address of themobile communication terminal frequently changes, as long as the changedIP address is transmitted to the robot server 300 and stored thereinwith registration, the robot terminal may communicate with the mobilecommunication terminal by searching for the changed IP addressinformation in the robot server, and thus, the communication between thetwo may continue. Of course, it is also possible that an IP address ofthe robot terminal is stored in the robot server with registration andthe mobile communication terminal requests and receives the IP addressof the robot terminal.

The communication network 400 is a network in which the robot terminal100, the mobile communication terminal 200, the robot server 300, or thelike are connected to each other, and the internet may be includedtherein.

The location measuring devices 501, 502 in a wire and wireless mobilecommunication network environment are equipment capable of measuringcurrent location information of the mobile communication terminal 200 ina network environment. The location measuring devices 501, 502 mayinclude a GPS satellite 501, a station cell, a wireless LAN cell 502, orthe like. The GPS satellite 501 is equipment for measuring a locationcoordinate with a GPS receiver included in the mobile communicationterminal and providing the measured location coordinate. The stationcell or wireless LAN cell 502 is equipment accessed by the mobilecommunication terminal for wireless communications and allows the mobilecommunication terminal to measure current location information by usingthe cell information of a station or wireless LAN currently accessed bythe mobile communication terminal for wireless communications.

Hereinafter, a robot terminal apparatus in the system for providing arobot interaction service utilizing location information of a mobilecommunication terminal according to an exemplary embodiment will bedescribed in further detail with reference to FIG. 2.

FIG. 2 is a view showing a robot terminal apparatus for providing arobot interaction service utilizing location information of a mobilecommunication terminal according to an exemplary embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 2, the robot terminal apparatus 100 according to anexemplary embodiment includes a communication interface 110, a sensor120, a behavior determinator 130, an operation controller 140, afunction executor 150, a behavior rule DB 160, or the like.

The communication interface 110 communicates with the mobilecommunication terminal 200 in the communication network 400 to send orreceive information and data. The communication interface 110 includes alocation information receiver 112, a data transmitter 114, or the like.The location information receiver 112 is connected to the mobilecommunication terminal 200 to request current location information andreceive the measured location information from the mobile communicationterminal in response to the request. The location information receiver112 may periodically request and receive the location information of themobile communication terminal 200 at predetermined time intervals byusing various settings.

The data transmitter 114 transmits information data to the mobilecommunication terminal 200. The data transmitter 114 transmits messagesand audio or video recording data, generated by the operation of thefunction executor 150, described later, to the mobile communicationterminal 200. The transmitted messages or data may include emotionalmessages interactively generated according to the user's locationinformation and surrounding condition information of the robot terminal.

The sensor 120 detects surrounding conditions of the robot terminal 100to obtain surrounding condition information. The sensor 120 includes asurrounding condition detector 122, or the like. The surroundingcondition detector 122 includes sensors which detect surroundingconditions of the robot terminal 100, current condition thereof, etc.The sensors of the surrounding condition detector 122 may include amotion detection sensor, a temperature and humidity detection sensor, alight detection sensor, a fire detection sensor, time, date and weathersensors for detecting a current condition, a home network sensor fordetecting operations and conditions of devices connected to a homenetwork, or the like. Besides the above mentioned sensors, exemplaryembodiments may further include various kinds of sensors capable ofdetecting the surrounding conditions of the robot terminal 100.

The behavior determinator 130 determines a robot behavior based on thelocation information of the mobile communication terminal 200 and thesurrounding condition information of the robot terminal 100 respectivelyobtained by using the communication interface 110 and the sensor 120.The behavior determinator 130 includes an interaction engine 132, or thelike. When the obtained location information and the surroundingcondition information are input, the interaction engine 132 determines abehavior, which will interact with a user according to the combinationof the inputted information, with reference to the behavior rule DB 160,described later, and outputs behavior information of the robot terminal.The interaction engine 132 determines behavior information of the robotterminal according to the information and rules stored in the behaviorrule DB 160, described later. Here, the information and the rules of thebehavior rule DB may change according to the operation of a user and aservice operator.

After the behavior determinator 130 determines a robot behavior, theoperation controller 140 controls the operation of the robot terminalaccording to the determined behavior information. That is, the operationcontroller 140 generates a signal, which controls the operation of arobot according to the determined robot behavior information, andtransmits the signal to the function executor 150, described later, tocontrol the execution of each function of the robot terminal.

The function executor 150 executes all kinds of functions of a robotaccording to the operation control signal of the operation controller140. The function executor 150 includes a message transmitter 152, ahome network controller 154, a robot function executor 156, an audio andvideo recorder and transmitter 158, or the like.

The message transmitter 152 generates a message according to theoperation control signal and transmits the message to the mobilecommunication terminal 200 using the communication interface 110. Thus,an emotional message may be generated and transmitted to the mobilecommunication terminal 200, and a user may check the message using themobile communication terminal 200.

The home network controller 154 is connected to a home network andcontrols operations of devices of the home network according to theoperation control signal generated by the operation controller 140.Therefore, various operations, such as turning on or off a light in aroom, turning on or off a TV, controlling the temperature of an indoorheater, etc., may be performed.

The robot function executor 156 executes functions of a robot accordingto the operation control signal. That is, the robot function executor156 executes all kinds of functions included in the robot terminal 100,such as turning on or off a lamp, outputting an image on a displaywindow, moving a robot, outputting voice and melody to a speaker, movinga robot arm, etc. Therefore, when a user returns home, the robotterminal may output a welcome audio message and keep moving around theuser.

The audio and video recorder and transmitter 158 records voice andimages according to the operation control signal by using a camera and amicrophone provided to the robot terminal 100 and transmits the recordedvoice and image data to the mobile communication terminal 200 throughthe communication interface 110. Therefore, the surrounding condition ofa robot terminal may be recorded and provided to a user.

The behavior rule DB 160 may be a memory such as a database which storesinformation and rules used as the basis when the behavior determinator130 determines a robot behavior. The information and rules stored in thebehavior rule DB 160 may be changed and set up by a user or a serviceoperator. Regarding the information stored in the behavior rule DB 160,result information according to input values, such as locationinformation and surrounding condition information may be stored, and theresult information may include various kinds of information. Here, anyone of such various kinds of information or their combinations may beselected according to rule information.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram for illustrating a method for providing a robotinteraction service utilizing location information of a mobilecommunication terminal according to an exemplary embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 3, first, the robot terminal located in a house or apredetermined place is connected to the mobile communication terminalpossessed by the owner of the robot terminal via the communicationnetwork, and receives current location information of the mobilecommunication terminal. (in operation S1)

Next, the robot terminal having the location information detectssurrounding conditions of the robot terminal with various sensorsincluded in the robot terminal. For example, a motion sensor may be usedto check the existence of a person, a temperature sensor may be used tocheck the temperature in a house, and a home network operation sensor ora light sensor may be used to check whether a room light turns on. (inoperation S2)

Then, the robot terminal extracts location information of the mobilecommunication terminal from the received location information andsurrounding condition information from the detected surroundingcondition information. At this time, the extracted location informationmay include current location information of the mobile communicationterminal, distance information from the mobile communication terminal tothe robot terminal, mobility information of the mobile communicationterminal, or the like. (in operation S3).

The robot terminal determines a behavior which will interact with a userbased on the location information and the surrounding conditioninformation extracted, as described above. At this time, both of theinformation is input by using an interaction engine, and a behaviorinformation result value is outputted with reference to the behaviorrule DB. The behavior information result value may include sending awelcome message to the mobile communication terminal, turning on a roomlight and TV, shaking a robot arm for welcoming, or the like. (inoperation S4)

As the result of the behavior determination, when the behaviorinformation result value is obtained, the operation of an actual robotis controlled based on the corresponding behavior information result. Atthis time, a control signal capable of controlling the operation of arobot is generated based on the behavior information result. (inoperation S5)

After the operation of a robot is controlled, functions of an actualrobot are executed in the robot terminal according to the correspondingcontrol signal. For example, a process of generating a message using acommunication interface and transmitting the generated message to themobile communication terminal, a process of turning on or off the lampof the robot terminal, a process of turning on the power of home networkdevices, or the like, are executed. (in operation S6)

After the functions of a robot are executed according to the operationcontrol signal, the robot terminal checks whether a predetermined timehas expired. The time may be set up by a user or a service operator.When the robot terminal checks the time, if the predetermined time hasexpired, the process returns to operation S1. However, if thepredetermined time has not yet expired, a stand-by process is performeduntil the predetermined time expires. Therefore, the robot terminal mayperform an interaction behavior and an emotional information service atperiodical time intervals. (in operation S7)

FIG. 4 is a flow chart for illustrating a method for providing a robotinteraction service utilizing location information of a mobilecommunication terminal according to an exemplary embodiment, based oneach node.

The procedures of a method for providing a robot interaction serviceaccording to an exemplary embodiment will be described based on eachnode (i.e., a smart phone, a robot server, and a robot terminal) withreference to FIG. 4.

First, as shown in FIG. 4, assuming that the mobile communicationterminal according to an exemplary embodiment is a user's smart phone401, the user executes a robot interaction service application of thesmart phone 401. (in operation 1).

If the application is executed, the smart phone 401 transmits a currentIP address using the communication network to a robot server 402. Atthis time, the smart phone 401 transmits a unique identifier togetherwith the IP address to the robot server 402. Also, when the accessed IPaddress changes, the smart phone 401 transmits the changed IP address tothe robot server 402. (in operation 2).

The robot server 402 receives the IP address from the smart phone 401and stores the IP address together with identification information ofthe smart phone 401. Of course, when a new IP address is transmitted,the robot server 402 renews the IP address corresponding to the smartphone identifier and stores the new IP address. Therefore, the robotserver 402 may store and manage the newest accessed IP address of thesmart phone 401. (in operation 3).

In order to perform an interaction service, the robot terminal 403requests an IP address of a predetermined smart phone such as the smartphone 401 from the robot server. At this time, an IP address requestsignal is transmitted with identification information of thepredetermined smart phone 401. (in operation 4).

If the IP request signal is received from the robot terminal 403, therobot server 402 extracts IP address information corresponding to thesmart phone identification information included in the request signal.(in operation 5).

The robot server 402 transmits the IP address extracted as describedabove to the robot terminal 403 which has requested the IP address. Therobot server 402 manages the IP address of the smart phone 401 byupdating the same to be the newest information, and when the robotterminal 403 requests an IP address, the robot server 402 provides theIP address of the corresponding smart phone 401. Therefore, the robotserver 402 relays information between the two terminals. (in operation6).

The robot terminal 403 stores the IP address of a smart phone 401received from the robot server 402 and performs a preparation processfor communicating with the smart phone 401. Also, when the robotterminal 403 already has the IP address of the smart phone 401, therobot terminal 403 may renew the IP address and store the newest IPaddress information received from the robot server 402. (in operation7).

Then, the robot terminal 403 communicates with the predetermined smartphone 401 by using the IP address of the smart phone 401 and requestscurrent location information of the smart phone 401. At this time, therobot terminal 403 uses applications included in the smart phone 401 forcommunicating information and requesting the location information. (inoperation 8).

The smart phone 401, whose location information is requested, obtainscurrent location information using the location determinator. At thistime, according to an exemplary embodiment, various location measuringmethods using GPS satellite information, station cell information orwireless cell information are used. (in operation 9).

The smart phone 401, whose current location information is obtained,transmits the obtained location information to the robot terminal 403which has requested the location information of the smart phone 401. (inoperation 10).

The robot terminal 403 receives the current location information of thesmart phone 401 and detects surrounding conditions with various sensors404 included therein to obtain sensing information. At this time,various kinds of surrounding condition information of the robot terminalis obtained by using various sensors included in the robot terminal 403.(in operation 11).

The robot terminal 403 stores the location information received from thesmart phone 401 and the surrounding condition information obtained byusing the sensors 403. (in operation 12).

Next, the robot terminal 403 determines an interaction behavior of arobot based on the location information and the surrounding conditioninformation stored as described above and controls the operation of arobot according to the determination result. Here, the robot behavior isdetermined with reference to the behavior rule DB included in a robot.(in operation 13)

Thus, when the robot terminal 403 determines the interaction behaviorand controls the operation of a robot according to the determinationresult, the robot terminal 403 performs various behaviors and operationprocesses based on the determination result of the robot behavioraccording to the operation control signal. (in operation 20).

Hereinafter, examples of various behaviors and operation processes madeby the robot terminal 403 will be described in detail according tovarious exemplary embodiments. First, in order to explain the examplesof behaviors and operations of a robot, it is assumed that a smart phoneuser returns home after work and the location information of the userrepresents that the user is near the user's house where the robotterminal 403 is located.

According to the assumption, the robot terminal 403 figures out that theuser is located near the user's house and determines a welcome behaviorand operation processes followed by the welcome behavior as the behaviorinformation of the robot, and a signal for controlling the operation ofthe robot according to the determination result is generated.

Therefore, first, the robot terminal 403 generates a welcome message forthe user who has returned home. At this time, one of various messagesstored in the behavior rule DB is selected and generated as the welcomemessage, which relieves the boredom caused by repeating the same messageevery time the user returns. (in operation 21).

After generating the message, the robot terminal 403 transmits thegenerated welcome message to the smart phone 401. The smart phone 401receives the message and outputs the welcome message on the screen ofthe smart phone 401. Therefore, when a user returns home, the userreceives a welcome message from a robot, and thus, an emotional serviceis provided to the user (in operations 22, 23).

Also, the robot terminal 403 not only sends a welcome message to a user,but also links to a home network to control operations of all kinds ofdevices connected to the home network. That is, since the user has comeback home in this assumption, the robot terminal turns on an indoor lampconnected to the home network to light up the house. (in operations 24,25).

Moreover, the robot terminal 403 controls to execute functions of arobot for welcoming the user's return. The robot terminal 403 performswelcome behaviors by shaking robot arms, moving robot back and forth, orthe like, according to the operation control signal. (in operations 26,27).

For example, the robot terminal 403 may determine that the user is aboutto come home and turn on the TV or turn up or down the thermostatdepending on the day and time information. The robot terminal 403 mayfurther dance around and so on.

The behaviors of the robot terminal 403 as described above are justexamples based on the above assumption, and various other behaviors mayalso be performed.

Accordingly, the method for providing a robot interaction serviceaccording to exemplary embodiments provides various interactionbehaviors and an emotional service based on a current location of a userand surrounding conditions of a robot terminal, thereby providing theuser with greater fun and interest.

The exemplary embodiments have been described in detail. However, itshould be understood that the detailed description and specificexamples, while indicating exemplary embodiments, are given by way ofillustration only, since various changes and modifications within thespirit and scope of the disclosure will become apparent to those skilledin the art from this detailed description.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changesand modifications may be made without changing a technical conceptionand/or any essential features of the exemplary embodiments. Thus,above-described exemplary embodiments are exemplary in all aspects, anddo not limit the present disclosure. The scope of the present disclosureis defined by the following claims and their equivalents rather than bythe detailed description of exemplary embodiments. It shall beunderstood that all modifications and embodiments conceived from themeaning and scope of the claims and their equivalents are included inthe scope of the present disclosure.

1.-13. (canceled)
 14. A system for providing a robot interaction serviceutilizing location information of a mobile communication terminal,comprising: a mobile communication terminal which determines a currentlocation of the mobile communication terminal and which transmits thedetermined location information to a robot terminal using acommunication network; and the robot terminal which receives thelocation information from the mobile communication terminal whichdetermines a robot behavior based on the received location information,and which controls the operation of the robot terminal based on thedetermined robot behavior.
 15. The system according to claim 14, whereinthe robot terminal obtains surrounding condition information bydetecting a surrounding condition and determines the robot behavior bycombining the received location information and the obtained surroundingcondition information.
 16. The system according to claim 14, furthercomprising: a robot server, provided in the communication network, forrelaying information between the mobile communication terminal and therobot terminal.
 17. The system according to claim 16, wherein the robotserver receives an IP address from the mobile communication terminal andstores the IP address in a memory of the robot server, and wherein therobot server relays information by transmitting the stored IP address inresponse to the robot terminal requesting the IP address of the mobilecommunication terminal.
 18. The system according to claim 14, whereinthe operation of the robot terminal comprises at least one of:transmitting a message to the mobile communication terminal, controllinga home network, performing a robot function, recording an audio andvideo and transmitting the recorded audio and video, and transmittinganother audio and video.
 19. The system according to claim 14, whereinthe mobile communication terminal comprises an application which whenexecuted communicates with the robot terminal to transmit locationinformation of the mobile communication terminal and display informationdata transmitted from the robot terminal.
 20. The system according toclaim 14, wherein the mobile communication terminal measures a currentlocation using a global positioning system (GPS) or a cell-basedlocation measurement device.
 21. The system according to claim 14,wherein the robot terminal requests location information from the mobilecommunication terminal at a predetermined time interval and receives thelocation information from the mobile communication terminal in responseto the request.
 22. The system according to claim 15, wherein thebehavior of the robot terminal is determined based on considerationscomprising: location information of the mobile communication terminal,and distance information indicating a distance between the mobilecommunication terminal and the robot terminal, extracted from thereceived location information; and information selected from at leastone of: current time, current date, current weather, conditions foroperating devices connected to a home network, peripheral person andobject conditions, extracted from the obtained surrounding conditioninformation.
 23. A method of providing a robot interaction serviceutilizing location information of a mobile communication terminal,comprising: measuring by the mobile communication terminal the currentlocation; transmitting the measured location information from the mobilecommunication terminal to a robot terminal in a house using acommunication network; receiving, by the robot terminal, the locationinformation of the mobile communication terminal; obtaining surroundingcondition information by detecting a surrounding condition with asensor; determining, by the robot terminal, a robot behavior based onthe received location information and the obtained surrounding conditioninformation; and controlling by the robot terminal the operation of therobot terminal based on the determined robot behavior.
 24. The methodaccording to claim 23, further comprising: performing at least one of:transmitting a message to the mobile communication terminal, controllingan in-house home network, executing a robot function, recording an audioand video, transmitting an audio and video based on the determined robotbehavior.
 25. A robot terminal apparatus for providing a robotinteraction service utilizing location information of a mobilecommunication terminal, comprising: a communication interface which isconfigured to communicate with a mobile communication terminal using acommunication network, which is configured to request locationinformation of the mobile communication terminal from the mobilecommunication terminal, and which is configured to receive the locationinformation measured by the mobile communication terminal; a sensorwhich is configured to detect a surrounding condition and to obtainsurrounding condition information; a behavior determinator which isconfigured to determine a robot behavior by combining the locationinformation received from the communication interface and thesurrounding condition information obtained from the sensor; and anoperation controller configured to control the operation of a robotterminal according to the determined robot behavior of the behaviordeterminator.
 26. The robot terminal apparatus according to claim 25,further comprising: a function executor configured to perform at leastone of transmitting a message to the mobile communication terminal,controlling an in-house home network, executing a robot function,recording an audio and video recording process and transmitting therecorded audio and video, transmitting another audio and video, underthe control of the operation controller.
 27. The system according toclaim 14, wherein the robot behavior comprises an expression of anemotion.
 28. The system according to claim 14, wherein the robotdetermines distance of the mobile communication terminal from the robotterminal based on the received location information and based on storedlocation information of the robot terminal and wherein based on thedetermined distance, the robot actuates at least one device of a homenetwork.
 29. The system according to claim 14, wherein the operation ofthe robot terminal comprises moving of the robot terminal to expressemotion.
 30. The system according to claim 14, wherein the operation ofthe robot terminal comprises: randomly selecting at least one messagefrom a stored plurality of messages that correspond to the determinedrobot behavior and transmitting the selected message to the mobilecommunication terminal.